NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is suggesting potential changes in the extra point that, well, might have some legs.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is suggesting potential changes in the extra point that, well, might have some legs.

Goodell said the extra-point kick after touchdowns, which had a success rate of nearly 100 percent, is too automatic.

And with few teams attempting two-point conversion plays until desperation hits late in games, the kick is the way coaches go.

So Goodell wonders if the league can add excitement by making major adjustments to the extra point, suggesting perhaps making a touchdown worth seven points instead of six, with teams having the option to run a play for another point. But failing on that play would cost them a point.

• Longtime New England Patriots assistant coach Pepper Johnson, a former Ohio State player, announced he is leaving the organization.

College football

Injured Northwestern back granted fifth season

Northwestern running back Venric Mark has been granted a medical hardship waiver by the Big Ten and is eligible to return for a fifth season next fall.

Mark was limited to three games last season because of injuries. He suffered a broken ankle on Oct. 12 and missed the remainder of the year.

Mark rushed for 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior in 2012, and he ranks fourth in Northwestern history with 4,271 all-purpose yards.

• Indiana coach Kevin Wilson promoted Kevin Johns to offensive coordinator, taking over for Seth Littrell, who is expected to leave for a similar job with North Carolina.

Wilson also hired Larry McDaniel as defensive line coach. McDaniel spent the past three seasons coaching the defensive line at Bowling Green.

Baseball

Players wanted Rodriguez kicked out of union

Several angry major league players wanted Alex Rodriguez kicked out of their union after he sued it last week, but staff attorneys told them expulsion was not allowed.

The players spoke on Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrator’s decision suspending him for the 2014 season.

The union and a Rodriguez spokesman declined comment.

The union will incur the costs of defending the lawsuit by the New York Yankees third baseman, who claimed in the suit it “breached its duty of fair representation to Mr. Rodriguez.”

Rodriguez was suspended for 211 games by commissioner Bud Selig on Aug. 5, and the union filed a grievance contending the discipline was without “just cause.”

Elsewhere

Brazil city in danger of losing World Cup games

FIFA’s anger over the lagging pace of construction ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil could cost the southern city of Curitiba its four group-play matches, an official said.

Jerome Valcke, secretary general of the international soccer governing body, said his group is not convinced that the Arena de Baixada will be ready by the time the tournament opens on June 12.

All 12 World Cup venues were supposed to be ready by Jan. 1, but FIFA was forced to relax that deadline after a slew of delays last month.

• B.J. Askew, a former Michigan and NFL fullback, has been charged in Michigan with failing to pay about $268,000 in child support.

The Michigan attorney general’s office said Askew was arrested in Hillsborough County, Fla., on Jan. 7. He will be extradited to Detroit to face the charge.

• Former NFL player Irving Fryar and his mother pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to steal more than $690,000 through a mortgage scam.

New Jersey state prosecutors allege Fryar’s 80-year-old mother, Allene McGhee, of Willingboro, submitted false information to obtain five loans on her home within a six-day period. The two were indicted on counts of conspiracy and theft by deception.

— From wire reports

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